Anecdotes about Vegas, Low Stakes Poker, and the Characters Who Enjoy Both.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Poker is Fun When You Bet the Nuts and Get Raised

If history repeats itself, this surely
was a good history to repeat.

But my most recent session here in
Southern California wasn’t exactly a duplicate of the session I
had the Saturday before at the Bike (see here).This one had a really bad start.But the end result was close enough to the
prior week's result to make me happy.And yes, again, it all came down to two big hands.

This time I headed back to Ventura to
hit the Player’s Casino.No, the
incredible success I had the Saturday before at the Bike didn’t convince me to
return there.I figured lightning
doesn’t strike twice in the same place.Besides, as I mentioned in this
post, I have come to really enjoy playing at PC.

You know those sessions where you sit
there for an hour or two without getting a decent hand to play?This was the complete opposite of that.

Unlike my last few times there, I
didn’t get to start a new table.After a
few minutes of waiting, I was sent to a game in progress.I was surprised that I didn’t recognize a
single player in the game, that’s the first time that’s happened at PC in quite
some time.

Perhaps that explains why, on the very
first hand I was dealt, I choked.Well,
“choked” may be too strong a word (or, perhaps not).But I’m not proud of my play.

That first hand I was dealt Ace-King
of clubs.And I just limped in.I kind of have a thing about raising my first
hand or two at a table—I don’t do it.Oh, I’ll do it if I have Aces or Kings or Queens, but most hands I’d
ordinarily be inclined to raise with, I’ll just limp in, because I have zero
feel for the table, and I don’t really want to introduce myself to the table by
raising right off the bat.I know some
people like raising their first hand to try to convey a certain image. They’ll even
do it with garbage. I should probably try it sometime.But it’s just not natural for me.And since I had no “book” on anyone at the
table, I just wanted to see what developed.

It was 4 or 5 of us seeing a flop,
which was King-high and had two diamonds.A guy led out for $10 and I just called.Another bad play, but I was trying to ease into the game.A third player called.The turn was a blank and no one bet
(apparently I was committed to playing this hand as meekly as possible). The river
was the Ace of diamonds, giving me top two with the flush out there.This time the guy who had called the flop bet
led out for $20.The other guy folded
and I made the call.Twenty bucks wasn’t
enough to get me to fold two pair.But
of course he showed a baby flush.It was
something like 10-3 of diamonds (he was one of the blinds).Of course I realized he most likely isn’t in
the hand if I had done the right thing and raised preflop.Ugh.

The very next hand I had pocket
Queens.Lesson learned, I raised to $18
because there was a $6 straddle (the game is 2/3, so the under-the-gun straddle
is $6).Actually, I’m never quite sure
how to adjust my opening raise when there is a straddle.Do I just add the amount of the straddle to
my bet, or make another adjustment?In
other words, if I would have normally opened the pot to $12 there (as I would
have), should I just make it $15 for the three extra bucks of the
straddle?Or do I go four times the
straddle amount of $6, since that is effectively the big blind amount on this
hand?I ended up betting three times
what a call would have been.I never
have figured out what the right amount is.Suggestions?

Anyway, there was a caller and then
one of the blinds made it $55.Ugh.It folded back to me.This guy had folded preflop the last hand—the
only hand I’d ever played with him.I
sure didn’t like the idea of folding my Queens.But four-betting with them seemed too dangerous with a guy I didn’t
know. My default read is that a 1/2, 1/3, 2/3 player is only three-betting with
AA or KK (maybe, just maybe Ace-King).I had bought in for $300 as usual and he had
me covered.I called hoping for a
Queen-high flop.The other guy called
too.What do you think of my call there?

The flop was Ace-high and the preflop
raiser checked.Hmm…..I narrowed his
range down to pocket Kings and that the Ace had scared him.Yeah, he could be slow-playing a set of Aces,
but I thought that unlikely. I checked as did the other guy. Against a player I
was more familiar with, I might have considered betting when he checked, hoping
that the Ace scared him enough to fold his Kings, if that’s what he had.But I didn’t know this guy. I saw paint come
out on the turn and for a nano-second I thought it was a Queen, but no, it was
a Jack.This time the preflop raiser put
out $65 and I folded, sure I was losing to his Kings.The other guy called.The river was another Ace and they both
checked.The caller said something about
having a Jack (really?) but didn’t show before the preflop raiser showed two
Kings.Well, at least my hand reading skills
were good on that hand.

Very soon after that, I had Ace-Queen
of clubs.I sure couldn’t complain about
being card dead.I’ve had four-hour
sessions where I didn’t get three hands as good as QQ, AKs, AQs.I opened to $12 and merely had four
callers.The flop was Jack-high with two
clubs.I wouldn’t normally c-bet there
with four other players in the hand, but having the nut-flush draw, I felt it
was the right thing to do.Agree or
disagree?

I put out $35.The guy to my immediate left called.He was short stacked and didn’t have much
left, maybe another $40-$50.It probably
didn’t make any sense for him to call instead of shoving, but whatever.The next guy thought for a bit and then
shoved.I had him covered too, and it
looked like his stack was in the $100 vicinity.It folded to me.I asked for a
count.While the dealer was counting,
the guy to my left put the rest of his chips out, acting out of turn.Interestingly, the dealer didn’t admonish him
for doing that.Anyway, it was $61 more to
me.It seemed like the right odds, so I
called.

No one showed.I sure liked the turn card, it was the King
of clubs.The river card was not as
nice.It was a 6 that paired the board.I was first to show, and the shortest stack instantly
mucked when he saw my hand.The other
guy, the one who had shoved his $100-ish stack, initially groaned when he saw
my hand.It was like “Ugh….a flush…..oh
wait, I have a boat.”He missed that the
board had paired.So the set of Jacks
he’d flopped was now a full house.And
he took down all the chips.

I’d been there less than two orbits
and had about $100 left out of my $300 buy-in.Sort of the exact reverse of the session the week before.Not at all the way I had hoped things would
go.I was a bit demoralized.

I think two things made that hand
affect my mental state harder than it otherwise would have.There were two "teases" there. I
mean the turn gave me the nuts, if only for a few seconds. So to think I'd won
a big pot only to have the rug pulled out from under me made it worse for me.
Yes, when I got it in I was behind. I knew that but I also had a lot of equity.
I think I would have been less upset if the flush never came and I had just
whiffed. This was much crueler. I understand “that’s poker" and it happens
all the time, but that doesn't mean it doesn't suck.

And then it didn't help that guy
basically said he had lost before he noticed the paired board. It wasn't a
slowroll, I'm sure he just didn't see the paired 6. But I was looking for a
pair as the only thing that could beat me and inwardly cursed when I saw it. So
when he initially reacted like he lost, I got another bit of false joy before
it went south.

I dwelled on it a few hands. It was
then I made a critical decision.Now
typically at that point, I would add on some chips, because $100 is a short
stack in a 2/3 game.But sometimes I
play on a bit to see how it goes.Sometimes I decide to just work the short stack for awhile and see if
the runbad continues.This had all
happened so fast.And as I said, I was
far from card dead.But getting the
second best hand in poker is a lot worse than being card dead.

When the button got to me, I decided
to go ahead and buy $100 more chips.It
was just too soon to throw in the towel.Boy was I glad I did.Of course,
you could argue that I should have bought $200 more to bring my stack back to
the original $300 I started with.But just
another $100 in play with the way I started out seemed like enough for me.

A hand or two later I limped in with
pocket 8’s and then called $17.It was five
of us seeing the flop.It came 10-8-5,
rainbow.The preflop raiser (one of the
blinds) checked but before it got to me another guy bet $20.He had a big stack, the biggest at the
table.I thought about it for a bit and
then decided to just call. The flop looked rather dry.And that small bet felt like he just had a
tiny piece of the flop and was less likely to call a raise. The preflop raiser
also called, the others went away.

The turn was another
10.Cool, this time I had the boat.The same guy, the big stack bet again, this
time $25.OK, that was too small a bet.
I decided to raise and see if I could get more value for my boat.I made it $70.The other guy folded.Big stack thought for a bit and then announced
“all-in.”He didn’t have a bigger boat
than I did, did he?Of course, I’m never
folding there.I announced call, and the
dealer put out a blank and then we showed our hands.

He said, “I have a
10.”Meanwhile the dealer said, “full
house” and for a second I thought he was referring to the big stack.His other card was like a 4—was there a 4 on
the board?Nope, the full house he was
referring to was mine.All he had was
trip 10’s with a very crappy kicker.The
dealer collected ~$200 from him.When I
finished stacking, I had about $445 in front of me.In one hand, I had gone from down $200 to up
well over $100.That’s no limit hold’em
for you.And I was real glad I’d added
on that $100 when I did, that’s for sure.

And then….really just a few hands
later…I had Ace-3 of hearts.By the time
I entered this hand in my notes, I had forgotten how the hand started.I might have limped in, I might have been one
of the blinds.I was in early position
for sure.I don’t think there was a
preflop raise, but there might have been.Sorry.All I know for sure is
that there were 3 or 4 of us seeing a flop that had two hearts on it.A guy led out for $20 and I called, it was
three-way now.The turn was a brick and
he bet $35 and I called, it was now heads up.The river was a heart, giving me the stone-cold nuts.No pair on the board.A straight was possible, a low straight, but
since the highest heart on the board was a Jack, no straight flush was
possible.

The guy had bet two streets and I
thought about checking to see if he would bet so I could check-raise.But I figured the heart had to be a scare
card for him.Whatever he had, he might
just be content to check behind.I
didn’t really think a straight was very likely as it would have been a gutshot
on the river.I didn’t know if he even had
anything.The guy had a big stack but
not quite as big as mine after that big pot I’d just won with the boat.

Thus, I figured I better bet something.But what would he call?The pot was at least $140-$145, so I bet $60
and just prayed he’d make the crying call with his top pair or two pair or
whatever.

He tanked for a bit, counted out the
chips.I still thought he’d likely
fold.But then, after counting out the
$60, he said something beautiful.He
said, “Make it $160.”

I double checked the board to make
sure I wasn’t missing something.Nope, I
had still had the absolute nuts.So I
said, “all-in.”

He tanked a bit, but not that
much.And then he said, “Call.”How sweet is that?

I showed my hand.And he showed his, it was Queen-8 of
hearts.The dealer counted our chips and
confirmed I had him covered and thus all his chips were pushed to me.

Meanwhile. The player next to him
said, “Nothing you could do.” (???) I assume he was just trying to encourage
him to stay in the game.Nothing he
could do?Well let’s see.My line screams of a flush.He didn’t even have the second nut flush, it
was the third nuts.How about just
calling my $60 bet, a crying call at that?Would have saved him a lot of money.

Does he really think I’m betting there
with less than a flush, or a flush worse than his Queen-high?

Not to complain, mind you.I was very happy to take his money.

And then take a picture of my new
stack of over $800.

I didn’t consider taking off with my
nice profit just then, at least not right away.But suddenly the poker gods remembered it was me and that I’m supposed
to get garbage hands.And thus I went
totally card dead.

Side note:you could argue of course that the Ace-3
suited that led to my biggest win of the session isn’t exactly a premium hand,
and you’d be correct.Perhaps my
card-deadedness started there?But as
per Ed Miller, I do play suited hands a lot, especially suited Aces.One of the reasons Miller recommends them is
that although being suited only increases a starting hand’s value by a percent
or two, when you hit that flush, you can often win a big pot.Thanks, Ed.

I went several orbits without playing
a hand.The table emptied out a bit and
most of the players left were on the nitty side.The two worst players at the table, who were,
not coincidentally, the two players who had given me that big stack I had, were
now short stacked.The Queen-hi flush
guy had only re-bought for $100 and never got over that amount.The guy with three 10’s lost the rest of his
big stack to various players and was struggling to stay in the game.Glad I got to him first.

Then two of the empty seats were taken
by a husband and a wife, two regs I recognized.The husband is probably the regular in this room I consider the toughest
player I’ve faced there.Real solid,
somewhat loose aggressive, puts a lot of pressure on you.Hard to read.His wife plays a similar style, though tighter.I realized they were going to have the next
biggest stacks after mine and it would be hard to get chips from them.

I mean, generally, you get your money
at poker from the weaker players, right?These are not weaker players.So
when I realized the game had just gotten a lot tougher, and I still had a $400
profit from the bad players, I decided to call it a day.I suppose I could have found another table, but
booking back-to-back big wins was sounding real good.

I ended up cashing out almost the same
amount of chips as last time, although I was in for $100 more so not quite as
profitable (a $400 win). Still, considering I was
down $200 within just a few minutes of getting there, it kind of felt like an
even better win than the week before.

No....you were just supposed to notice the title "Nuts" there cuz it was about my having the "Nuts". Lucy's boobs are irrelevant. In fact, I tried to photoshop them out. but I don't know how to use the program.

Hey Rob, great article as always. Just want to thanks for writing such a great blog. I've been out in the Persian gulf stationed in the middle of a desert for the past 6 months and reading it has helped pass the time in some of the quieter moments. Looking forward to getting back to playing live in the UK and also my Vegas trip in November.Cheers!

I think you did make an error though, if I'm not mistaken when you doubled up to get to $445 you were in for $400 so you were not up well over $100.

Still.no arguing with that outcome. Also i think you have to bet your nut flush draw. The short stacks might be nursing their money and may even get out of the way on a hand where you're behind. Also, I know you were against a set there but your over cards could be good

I was down against a set of queens with my set of jacks once. The river hit another jack!! We had been checking the whole time when he then bet to me. I made my all in look like a shove and got called. He instantly celebrated but realised what a bad beat that was.